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{CLICK TO ENLARGE}Took these snap shots with my panorama setting on my phone.

Breakfast, Kinect play time, movie surfing, dancing & ring-around-the-rosie with Samson. But Rob got tired of the last part, so the kids took over. We are one kid short this morning. She stayed at grandma’s for the night. Continuing, but still not done with spring cleaning as you can see. Crate is in the middle of the living room, because we (I) are running on neutral. Trying to get it into drive so I can finish up and move on about my day. But watching the sideshow going on is slowing traffic 😉

My lil’ growing young lady is such a delight. She wears her sweet little heart on her sleeve and you will never have to question how she feels. We used to think she was shy, but as she has grown, we are discovering that is very much not the case. She knows she is special & likes to be treated that way. This year for her birthday she was really looking forward to sharing her special day with her class & taking full advantage of the recognition among them 🙂 She had it all planned out. Girly cupcakes were to be brought to school, she was to wear her favorite new shirt, she would wear her hear down (because it’s very rare that mom allows her to wear it that way to school), and she was to have a magic pointing finger for the day, meaning we had to oblige her every (reasonable) request! After a special day at school we got ice cream & went to the park for none other than a lil mini photo shoot that was all about the birthday girl, duh!

Makaila enjoying her ice cream & her crown just as much!

Modeling her birthday outfit of choice.

Spinning & twirling.

She opened some of her presents early that morning (because she refused to wait til we went out for her birthday dinner) and got the Jesse doll she wanted.

This week has brought forth some very warm days. While the heat can be uncomfortable at times, I enjoyed taking advantage of the opportunities that warm weather ushers in. The theme this week seemed to be food, family, outdoor activities, and did I mention food? 🙂 It’s no secret I am a self proclaimed fan of food. It’s not only that I enjoy eating it, but I get inspired by the atmosphere we can create around it.

We spent much more time outside, at the park, & going for strolls than we had in the past few months! These summer-like days gave the husband, kids, & I an appetite for summer food. We had to get some good ol’ cherry chip & pistachio ice cream. We took a lil walk and happened to be near a new sandwich shop that had a pretty good special- Kid’s eat for a $1 with every adult meal. Deal’s always makes things taste that much sweeter! It was a nice change of pace for dinner. The subs were not only flavorful, but generously sized and they even make them with freshly sliced meats!

This week was also my mother in law’s birthday. We had a nice lunch at another recently established place. Again, delicious food & great specials. This Mexican restaurant serves lunch specials for only $3.99! Now, I expected a mini version of one of their regular dishes, but to my pleasant surprise, it was not only a very full sized plate, but amazing food! Ok… I’m hungry again

For dinner my mother in law specifically requested hot dogs! I think the weather got the best of most of us. So a home cooked dinner it was!

This past week was my Husband’s Birthday. I won’t tell how old he is (aahem, 31). He chose a favorite lil spot of ours called Rocky Cola Cafe. The food is delicious, the atmosphere is fun, & the kids love it. We also love the fact that kids eat free everyday of the week with any adult meal! Music to my ears for our family of five 🙂

We enjoyed a nice dinner and I caught some cute, humble shots while we were out. I got inspired by the artsy, vintage backdrop. I think I may have to return for a fun creative session soon!

The restaurant is located in Uptown Whittier. I just love the quaint, spirited streets all lit up for the holidays!

To keep the kids busy until meals arrived, we indulged in the crayons. However, coloring is sooo last year. We built with them instead!

Makaila was my little muse. She loves to take pictures like Mommy. So I try to get snapshots of her in her element often. Maybe for her biography in her future published work? 😉

I’ve been out of the groove the past several days… maybe weeks. I’ll have to check my productivity level by percentage of clean laundry that has made it back into drawers and last blog written and let you know for sure. But the point is that I am aiming for consistency again.

The most current focus in my life has been our new dog, Samson. As if I have all the time in the world, no children, and maids to handle my home for me… I got my husband to agree with me that it was time for us to get a dog. We had been considering one since probably our last kid and had been seriously looking into it for the past year.The timing seems about right considering our family’s track record for expanding. Jeremiah is 2 years old now… so that would perfectly match the age difference between he and his new pet sibling to that of Mo & Fro (the girls).

So, most of the people who know me also know that I am a bit of a cook when it comes to entering into new situations in my life. Example? Aside from common sense… I prepared a binder with instructions, information, and cute inspiration clippings to direct my support group during the hospital stay and birth of my first born in the event that I was too busy laboring to share the specifics. (I know, admittedly embarrassing for me, funny for you). So for my new passion, Samson, there was no exception to my madness. I researched and studied how to become a good Boxer Mommy and Alpha Pack Leader in two days. I know it is not plausible… butI gained enough info tomake myself feel confident enoughto take Him on. It’s all about mind set people 😉

Overall, I am in love. After narrowing it down to dog breed, age, and method of adding a pup to our brood, we have adopted or “rescued” a 1 1/2 year old male Boxer. Initially I thought that I wanted a perfect, new, soft boxer pup with ared bow! Yet, in the end we decided that giving a home to a well deserving dog was right for us. Online searching and dog visits were our routine for a few weeks. Long story short, we finally met Samson. He has over exceeded my high, maybe even unrealistic at the time, expectations. Nevertheless, we were blessed with abundantly more that we asked for. He is even tempered, healthy, loving, gentle, obedient, laid back, loyal, and housebroken! Dream puppy for our family. Things are settling now and I feel urged to come back from my two-week new dog owner maternity leave.

Wanna know the ironic humor of it all? You know how when you have a new baby and you accidentally find yourself cooing or talking in high pitched tones to grown adults cuz you’ve been doing it all day with your newborn? Just as with motherhood to human children, I find myself carrying my lingo into other areas of my life which are inappropriate. When pleased with my husband my response has been, “Good boy!” and when Jeremiah threw his body across my desk while I was trying to write this post I scold him with, “Jeremiah….Off!” and a loud clap as to startle him.

In the past two days I have gotten to get in touch with a side of myself that was dusty and rusty. In lieu of the “alternative fall activities” at the kids school and our upcoming event at church, there has been a lot of artsy things going on.

Today I took advantage of my husbands latest disposition and got the chance to help out in Makaila’s class. It was pumpkin carving with the Kindergartners and it was actually a really good time! A quick side story… Makaila and another girl in our group went girly and got icky about gutting our pumpkin. So this really petite, adorable little boy steps up and says in a Mr. Cool type of voice, “Let the Man handle this. I’ll take care of it.” And then he sort of flicked his head back as to move his shiny hair from his brow and dug right in. Gosh, kids are hilarious!

Anywho.. I was pleasantly surprised to know that our activity was educationally motivated. There were predictions and estimating. Oh, and did you know why farmers leave about a 3 inch stem on the pumpkin? Well, I do…because it keeps it from growing moldy longer. Bam–You learn something new everyday! The scientific pumpkin carving affair lasted only about an hour so it was butcher paper Indian-vest-making for me (Novembers project). Carving, playing with slime, tracing and cutting…. no wonder kids have such a carefree outlook on life. I need to do it more often!

Additionally, with the upcoming Trunk or Treat Festival that our church is holding I’ve gotten to paint and do a few more hands on activities that I have not partaken in in a long while. It’s simple kiddy art but has been so much fun and more therapeutic than I thought it would have been. Between that and playing around with costume paint ideas I’m in art mode! Of course, I have to come up with appealing & creative ways to project information on a regular basis, but this carefree side of imaginative projects has inspired me greatly!

These are some faux-wood signs for our festival.

A section of a sign I am still working on.

Some makeup looks we were playing around with.

Used what we had on hand so this is all “regular” face makeup.

This was our first, quick, dry run at an Avatar look.Got the right supplies today and anxious to try it again.

And a couple of random breaks in between…

Jerm rocking out.

Keeping himself busy and proud of his “creation”… his bed nook he made all by himself 😉

Jeramiah and I decided to baked a cake the other day for the “others” before they got home. Inspired by Jeremiah’s sweet acts of kindness (“Show a little love” post) and all that sugar he was laying on mama, we made a red velvet cake in the shape of none other than a heart, of course! We used mix straight out of the box… nothing spectacular. But we had a really nice time doing it together and it was a fun experience for the lil dude. Who knows… maybe a lil’ Chef one day like his Daddy?